SO the Realis deal to turn Hanley’s old bus station into a state-of-the-art shopping and cinema complex is dead in the water. A shock right up there with the old Burton Stores not being declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Did anyone ever truly believe this was going to happen? When it comes to safer bets, I’d have put my mortgage on Three-Legged Sid at the Grand National.

In all honesty, the only reason I can see for Stoke-on-Trent City Council ever having any confidence in the plan is that they’ve started serving White Lightning at Cabinet meetings.

Realis has prevaricated for years over plans to regenerate the city centre. We’ve waited and waited and waited. If Realis was Godot, we’d have cleared off home long ago.

By my reckoning, we’re on our fourth Prime Minister since Realis started talking up grand plans for the old bus station. We’ve had a home Olympics, landed a rover on Mars, and shot Bin Laden. In the meantime at the old bus station a skip has arrived.

I’m beginning to wonder if Realis is Latin for treacle.

Unity Walk was the name the new development was going to acquire. Now we can go back to Disunity Plaza, a better reflection of the area when the pubs have turfed out.

Now that the Realis deal is off, this gargantuan hellhole must be bulldozed.

It must be consigned to history like Ceramica in Burslem. Just flatten it. If no-one wants to build there – understandable considering the intense ground pollution from the old toilets – then stick a couple of trees in and a few rolls of turf. Just do something. Yes, green algae has its place in nature, but do we want to see it as we tuck into something from Pound Bakery? No.

When I go to other cities, I can’t move for cranes, building sites and blokes in hard hats complementing my man boobs. Hanley? Standstill.

We’re supposed to be wowed by getting double red lines instead of the yellow ones. Double reds indicate no stopping at any time. The way Hanley’s going I don’t think that’s an issue.

Traders want action taken as soon as possible on the old East-West precinct (Image: Stoke Sentinel)

Too often it seems we pin our regeneration hopes on winning the likes of City of Culture or a hub for Channel 4.

It’s the same mindset that leads the rest of us to buy a Lucky Dip on a Saturday. It’s a belief with no foundation, a future built on sand.

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The way to change the city is to do it ourselves. That’s what the private sector has done.

I’m not running Stoke-on-Trent down, it is actually an epicentre of entrepreneurship and business imagination. There are some significant employers here, and there are those who enjoy the city as a creative hub whether the Brookside gang build a sparkling new branch office or not.

Why are we so beholden to the likes of Realis? If a partner delivers so little over the long-term then you walk away. My wife threatened to do the same if we didn’t get a new stair carpet. The fitter arrives on Monday.

An artist's impression of the Unity Walk development in Hanley

Why are we so in thrall to the ‘genius’ of people of other cities? The City of Culture bid was put together by a team from Liverpool. Realis is from Birmingham. Channel 4’s London execs have a breakdown if they’re not within 20 feet of a Pret à Manger.

Who knows better the needs of Stoke-on-Trent and how to make them a reality than ourselves?

If, as we keep hearing, we are a city of talent, it’s time we backed it.